Is the Shark Cordless Detect Pro worth it?

Cordless vacuums earn rave reviews for their convenience but usually lag behind corded models when it comes to suction power. But if you’re looking for a cordless vacuum that can handle all flooring surfaces and types of debris, Dyson isn’t your only option — the Shark Cordless Detect Pro is up to plenty of cleaning challenges usually reserved for more expensive vacuums.

What sets it apart from similar cordless vacuums is its four deep-cleaning technologies that allow it to detect dirt and adjust its suction and brushroll accordingly. It also offers three power modes and a self-cleaning brushroll that can pick up pet hair and long hair without getting tangled. 

To see how well the Shark Cordless Detect Pro really performs, the BestReviews Testing Lab put it to work on different flooring surfaces and in hard-to-reach areas with debris of various sizes. We also considered how well it handled pet hair, how long its battery lasted and how noisy it was while cleaning.   

Why we like it

• Solid suction power: The Shark Cordless Detect Pro isn’t the most powerful cordless we tested, but it offered solid suction power on both hard flooring and carpeting, removing at least 90% of debris in a single pass on all surfaces. It also removed pet hair easily, even from carpeting. 
• Lightweight, easy-to-maneuver design: The Cordless Detect Pro is one of the lightest cordless vacuums we tested, so it was easy to maneuver around furniture and other obstacles and even carry upstairs. 
• Auto-emptying base: While self-emptying bases are common among robot vacuums, they aren’t found with many cordless models. The Cordless Detect Pro’s Auto-Empty System allows the vacuum to empty its onboard dustbin after each vacuuming session, holding up to a month’s worth of dirt, so you don’t have to empty it every time. 
• Excellent cleaning along edges: The Cordless Detect Pro has an edge detector sensor that increases its suction along the sides of its head when it senses that it’s beside a wall. As a result, it can more effectively clean along a room’s edges and corners than other vacuums. In fact, it removed more than 96% of the debris from along our room’s edges during testing.   
• More affordable than competitors: While the Shark Cordless Detect Pro offers many high-end features, it costs under $500. Similar models from brands like Dyson and Samsung typically go for $600 and up. 

What we don’t like

• Small onboard dustbin: While the Cordless Detect Pro has an auto-emptying base, its internal dustbin is fairly small. In larger homes, that can mean more frequent interruptions to cleaning to empty the bin. 
• Limited battery life: Shark advertises an up to 60-minute battery life for the Cordless Detect Pro, but we only got a little over 50 minutes of cleaning time during our testing. 
• Space needed: The Cordless Detect Pro isn’t larger than any other cordless vacuum, but its self-emptying docking station requires a good amount of space that might not be available in smaller homes. 

The 60-second scoop

This lightweight, feature-packed vacuum boasts enough cleaning power to rival pricier models 

Product specifications: Dustbin Capacity: 0.42 L (internal)/2 L (on the base) | Dimensions: 14.3” L x 10.4” W x 43” H  | Battery Life: Up to 60 min | Cleaning Path Width: 10.4” | Weight: 6 lb 

The Shark Cordless Detect Pro is a lightweight cordless vacuum with four deep-cleaning technologies, allowing it to provide a deeper, more thorough cleaning. It has an edge-detecting sensor that enables it to increase suction at the sides of the head to clean along walls more effectively. Its other technologies can detect larger amounts of dirt and increase the suction power, adjust the brushroll based on the flooring surface and turn on its light when cleaning in darker areas for improved visibility. We found that these features allowed it to clean both hard flooring and carpeting without leaving any debris behind.

Its convenience doesn’t stop at its automatic cleaning features, though. It has a self-emptying base that empties the vacuum’s onboard dustbin each time you dock it, so you don’t have to do it manually every time you vacuum. It also has a self-cleaning brushroll, making it ideal for handling pet hair. Its HEPA filtration and anti-allergen complete seal ensures that it captures and traps up to 99.97% of particles and allergens, too, so those with allergies will appreciate its thoroughness. Plus, it scores extra points for versatility because it comes with a crevice tool and a pet multitool and converts to a hand vac for smaller spaces.  

See how it compares to other products in its space — check out our reviews for the best cordless vacuums.

Price and where to buy

The Shark Cordless Detect Pro Auto-Empty System typically retails for $449.99. You can find it at Amazon and Best Buy.

Setup

It took the testing team about 10 minutes to set up the Cordless Detect Pro.

The Shark Cordless Detect Pro came in a sturdy box with cardboard inserts that securely held all the individual components in place. Both the vacuum itself and the auto-empty dock required assembly, but we didn’t find either process difficult at all.

After removing all the pieces from the box, we slid the wand into place at the top of the floor nozzle until it clicked in and then connected the top of the wand to the main vacuum body. Next, we set the main dock component on the floor and slid the charging port into the slot in the front until it clicked into place. We plugged the dock into an outlet and attached the accessory mount. Finally, we placed the assembled vacuum in the dock, so its battery could charge fully for cleaning.

The entire setup process took less than 10 minutes. 

Design and brushrolls

The Cordless Detect Pro’s four cleaning technologies rely on sensors for activation, so it’s essential to clean them regularly of any hair or debris.

The Cordless Detect Pro had a slim, streamlined design. The components are mainly white with brass and black accents, giving it a sleek, modern appearance. It is also lightweight, weighing just 6 pounds, so it was easy to maneuver around and even beneath furniture and other obstacles. 

Unlike other cordless vacuums that include multiple cleaning heads, the Cordless Detect Pro doesn’t require changing floor nozzles based on whether you’re on carpeting or hard floors. The multisurface nozzle can effectively pick up fine particles, large debris and pet hair on all flooring surfaces and adjusts automatically based on the floor. It also has a self-cleaning brushroll, so we never noticed any hair tangled around it, even though our testing area had quite a bit of pet hair. 

The top of the main vacuum body has a display that shows the selected cleaning mode and the remaining battery life as you clean. It also has a power button and another button to choose the cleaning mode. We especially appreciated its one-touch power button because we didn’t have to hold a trigger down the entire time we vacuumed, which meant our hands never got tired. 

Battery life and recharge time

Shark claims up to a 60-minute battery life for the Cordless Detect Pro. It has three cleaning modes — Eco, Auto and Boost. Eco offers the longest battery life but the lowest suction, while Boost provides the shortest battery life but the strongest suction. In Auto mode, the vacuum balances battery life and suction by automatically adjusting based on the flooring and dirt level. 

During testing, the Cordless Detect Pro cleaned for 52 minutes in Eco mode, 39 minutes in Auto and 10 minutes in Boost. When the battery was fully drained, it took four hours and 35 minutes to fully recharge. 

We mainly used the vacuum in Auto mode and found that the battery drained faster on carpeting, which we expected since the suction increased to pull dirt, hair and other debris from the fibers. 

Suction power

The Cordless Detect Pro performed well on both hard surfaces and carpeting, successfully picking up debris of various sizes. 

It was particularly impressive on hardwood, picking up 99.1% of the kosher salt we placed, 98.9% of the coffee grounds and 99.3% of the birdseed. It blew a couple of Cheerios out of its path but still removed 98% of the cereal. On low-pile carpeting, it removed 93.6% of the salt, 92.3% of the coffee grounds, 97% of the birdseed and 96.2% of the Cheerios. It wasn’t quite as successful on medium-pile carpeting but still highly impressive, capturing 90.4% of the salt, 91.7% of the coffee grounds, 96.7% of the birdseed and 98.5% of the Cheerios.

Its performance with pet hair really wowed us, though. Our testing area housed two medium to large dogs that shed regularly, so there was plenty of hair to contend with. The Cordless Detect Pro removed 100% of the visible hair on low-pile carpeting in a single pass. We didn’t find any hair tangled around the brushroll afterward, either. 

While many vacuums struggle to clean along edges, the Cordless Detect Pro excelled along the walls of our testing area. It removed 96.3% of the kosher salt we placed along the wall edge and didn’t blow any particles across the room. We also had success using the vacuum’s crevice tool to clean indented areas — it picked up 98.2% of the salt we placed in a shallow crevice that held 2 grams and 90.7% of the salt in a deep crevice that held 4 grams. 

Noise

The testing team noted that the Cordless Detect Pro was 20 decibels quieter than a traditional corded vacuum.

 

The Cordless Detect Pro wasn’t particularly noisy during testing. It registered 78 decibels on hard flooring in Auto mode and 74.3 decibels on carpeting in Auto mode, which is about as loud as a washing machine. The corded vacuum in our testing area, on the other hand, hit 93.1 decibels on hard flooring (which is closer to the sound of a motorcycle), so the Cordless Detect Pro was noticeably quieter. 

Surface performance and docking

In addition to automatically emptying its dustbin, the Cordless Detect Pro automatically charges every time you place it in its dock.

During testing, we found the Shark Cordless Detect Pro very easy to maneuver over both hard surfaces and carpeting. Its lightweight design made moving between the two surfaces easy, so we had no issues transitioning from hardwood to carpeting or vice versa. 

The vacuum’s self-emptying docking station is larger than most cordless vacuum docks, measuring 7 inches long by 7 inches wide by 10 inches tall. However, we had no trouble finding a spot for it in our testing area. The vacuum was also extremely easy to dock — we only had to set it within the bracket and let it drop into place. 

When you dock the Cordless Detect Pro, the base automatically empties its internal dustbin. It can hold up to 30 days’ worth of debris, so we didn’t need to empty the vacuum each time we vacuumed. Best of all, the base’s large dustbin doesn’t use bags like many other self-emptying vacuums, which means you don’t have the recurring costs of bags every month. Instead, we emptied the bin directly into a trash can. 

The Cordless Detect Pro’s docking station also has a spot for an odor neutralizer puck to reduce unpleasant scents that might develop from the stored dirt and debris. The vacuum comes with one odor neutralizer puck, but you’ll have to buy a new one every six months to continue neutralizing odors. We found the feature pretty effective since we never noticed any smell from the vacuum’s base. We also appreciated that we could control the intensity of the odor neutralizer just by turning a dial on the base near the cartridge.

Features

Thanks to its HEPA filtration system, the Cordless Detect Pro can eliminate over 99.97% of particles and allergens as small as 0.3 microns.

The Shark Cordless Detect Pro may not be the most powerful cordless vacuum on the market, but it offers several notable features that can thoroughly clean all flooring surfaces and types of debris.

Self-cleaning brushroll

The Cordless Detect Pro’s floor nozzle features a multisurface, self-cleaning brushroll, which allows it to effectively pick up hair without getting tangled. When we used the vacuum to pick up pet hair in our testing area, we found none wrapped around the brushroll afterward.

Cleaning technologies

The Cordless Detect Pro boasts four cleaning technologies with sensors that trigger them: DirtDetect, FloorDetect, LightDetect and EdgeDetect.

DirtDetect allows the vacuum to boost its suction power when it detects hidden dirt. FloorDetect lets the vacuum adjust the height of the brushroll depending on the surface that it’s on. The LightDetect feature turns on the headlight to allow you to see in low-light situations. EdgeDetect uses a sensor to determine when the vacuum is near a wall and increase the suction at the sides of the cleaning nozzle to clean more effectively. 

We were especially impressed by the EdgeDetect feature, which removed up to 96.3% of the debris we placed along the wall edge. 

HEPA filter and anti-allergen complete seal

The Shark Cordless Detect Pro features a HEPA filtration system and anti-allergen complete seal, which allows it to capture and trap over 99.97% of particles and allergens as small as 0.3 microns. Its self-emptying docking station also has a HEPA filter, so dust and allergens won’t escape when the vacuum self-empties, either. 

During testing, we didn’t see any particles escaping from the vacuum while vacuuming or its base when it emptied itself. 

How we tested the Shark Cordless Detect Pro

The testing team evaluated the Cordless Detect Pro’s suction performance on debris such as salt, ground coffee, birdseed, Cheerios and pet hair.

Handling fine debris like salt and coffee 

To test how the Shark Cordless Detect Pro handled fine debris, we placed 5 grams each of kosher salt and ground coffee on hardwood, low-pile carpet and medium-pile carpet. We did one pass over each debris pile and recorded the percentage the vacuum picked up.

Handling medium debris like birdseed

We evaluated how well the Cordless Detect Pro dealt with medium debris by placing 5 grams of birdseed on hardwood, low-pile carpet and medium-pile carpet. We went over each pile of debris once and noted the percentage of the debris the vacuum removed. 

Handling large debris like Cheerios

To determine how well the Shark Cordless Detect Pro handled large debris, we placed 5 grams of Cheerios on hardwood, low-pile carpet and medium-pile carpet. We went over each pile once and recorded the percentage of the debris the vacuum picked up. 

Handling pet hair

We evaluated how well the Cordless Detect Pro handled pet hair by placing 1 gram of hair on a carpeted surface. We passed over the hair once and recorded what percentage of hair it picked up. Afterward, we also noted the percentage of hair tangled in the brushroll. 

Evaluating battery life

To test the Shark Cordless Detect Pro’s battery life, we noted how long it cleaned in Eco mode before it drained completely to compare with Shark’s advertised battery life. We also recorded how long the battery took to recharge. 

How does it compare to other vacuums we’ve tested

• Suction: While the Shark Cordless Detect Pro has solid suction, it isn’t the most powerful model we tested. It tops out at 125 air watts, while the Dyson V15 Detect can reach 240 AW, and the Dyson Gen5detect Absolute hits 262 AW. The Cordless Detect Pro is most similar in power to the Dyson V12 Detect Slim, which reaches a maximum of 150 AW. 
• Battery life: The Cordless Detect Pro can clean for up to 60 minutes, similar to most of the other cordless vacuums we’ve tested. The Dyson V15 Detect, V15 Detect Submarine and V12 Slim Detect have batteries with a maximum life of 60 minutes, though models like the Dyson Gen5detect Absolute can clean for 70 minutes. 
• Weight and maneuverability: The Cordless Detect Pro weighs just 6 pounds, so it’s one of the lightest vacuums we tested. Only the Dyson V12 Detect Slim is lighter, weighing just 5.22 pounds. Because of its lightweight design, the Cordless Detect Pro was easier to maneuver than heavier models like the Dyson Gen5detect Absolute and Dyson Gen5outsize Absolute, which weigh 7.72 pounds and 8.6 pounds, respectively. 
• Features: While the Cordless Detect Pro doesn’t have the dirt-revealing green laser that many Dyson models have, including the V12 Detect Slim, V15 Detect, V15 Detect Submarine and Gen5detect Absolute, it does have a light at the front of its vacuum head that automatically turns on in low-light situations. It is also the only cordless vacuum we tested with a self-emptying docking station, which reduces how often you have to manually empty the bin. 
• Price: The Shark Cordless Detect Pro costs less than $500, while many competitors, including the V12 Slim Detect, Dyson V15 Detect and Dyson Gen5detect Absolute, retail for $600 and up. Some models, like the Dyson Gen5outsize Absolute, cost over $1,000. The Shark Cordless Detect Pro may not be as powerful as these models, but its cleaning technologies and other features still make it a viable alternative to these more expensive cordless vacuums.

The final verdict

The Cordless Detect Pro is an affordable model with premium features.

The Shark Cordless Detect Pro may not be powerful enough to replace a full-size, corded vacuum, but it is an ideal complement to a corded model. Its lightweight design makes it easy to carry between floors, and its top-notch EdgeDetect technology allows it to clean along walls more effectively than many corded models. It is even ideal for everyday cleaning in a home with pets, thanks to its tangle-free brushroll. 

The self-emptying docking station is an appealing option for someone who doesn’t want to deal with much daily maintenance for their cordless vacuum. The dock can hold up to 30 days’ worth of debris and doesn’t use bags, so you don’t have to buy replacements. Its price is likely a better fit for most budgets than other high-end cordless vacuums — and it still offers plenty of premium features.